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The Role of the Audience in Online Gatekeeping
Traditionally the gatekeeper has been defined as a journalist, news editor, or news manager who, through a set of criteria, makes a decision regarding what information is newsworthy. As the Internet has continued to become a part of the daily lives of individuals, it has changed the definition of the word “gatekeeper.” Anyone who decides whether information should be shared with the public can be classified as a gatekeeper Dimitrova, D. V., Connolly-Ahern, C., Williams, A.P., Kaid, L.L. and Reid, A. (2003). Hyperlinking as Gatekeeping: Online Newspaper coverage of the execution of an American terrorist. Journalism Studies, Vol. 4 (3), 401-414.. This means you, the audience, can act as gatekeeper by creating and sharing content and by deciding what information is important. The following sections will explore the audience influence in online gatekeeping, the audience in the role of gatekeepers and the future of gatekeeping in online journalism. Audience Influence in Online Gatekeeping Today audiences are more than just news recipientsVu, H.T. (2014). The online audience as gatekeeper: The influence of reader metrics on news editorial selection. Journalism, Vol. 15 (8), 1094-1110.. The Internet has changed the dynamic of the relationship between the media and the news consumer by allowing two-way communication, which was not always possible with traditional media. Boczkowski Boczkowski PJ and Peer L (2011) The choice gap: The divergent online news preferences of journalists and consumers. Journal of Communication 61(5): 857–876. ,believes digital news moves the news from “being mostly journalist-centered, communicated as a monologue … to also being increasingly audience centered, part of multiple conversations.”This relationship allows both the audience and news organization to influence the the news agenda and the media’s gatekeeping process. The audience as gatekeepers Today journalists share the role of gatekeeper with the audience Singer J.B. (2003) Who are these guys? The online challenge to the notion of journalistic professionalism.Journalism 4(2): 139–163. . The audience are able to act as gatekeepers in the following ways: 1. Creating, sharing and publishing content through platforms such as social media, blogs, websites, etc. 2. Filtering through information in order to determine what’s important and newsworthy to them. 3. Promoting media content, making it popular among their followers and others. Gatekeeping, the Audience and Social Media Trending news topics and the promotion of the “most popular stories” are examples of the how an audience can use social media to determine what is relevant, entertaining and interesting. In the video below, Eric Deggans, NPR TV Critic, speaks about the role of the audience and social media in gatekeeping: Social media provides the audience with the tools that are necessary to set the tone for what the media reports. This kind of information can influence a news organizations decision to provide content related to popular topics.Through the Internet, the audience now has the power to determine what information is newsworthy. In recent years, there have been several instances where news of political or social significance has become public through the work of audience members Kwon, K.H., Oh, O., Agrawal, M. And Rao, H. R. (2012). Audience Gatekeeping in the Twitter Service: An Investigation of Tweets about the 2009 Gaza Conflict. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 4, (4), 212-229.. A great example of this can be seen in the Arab Spring protests of 2010-2011, where the citizens organized and reported information regarding the protests through social media. Highly publicized situations of significance were essentially reported by the audience, which symbolizes a weakening of the power used by the media to control information and news . The audience have become “alternative information producers.”